Southampton must go back to basics to improve their promotion hopes.
Russell Martin is a manager who very much sticks to his principles, with some admiring the commitment to his values whilst others may lament his approach as stubborn.
Southampton secured consecutive wins in Saturday’s 4-2 victory over struggling Sunderland, having lost three in a row prior to the 4-3 win over Birmingham City last time out.
Scoring four goals in consecutive games is impressive and a promising sign for the promotion push, however the Saints cannot continue to concede goals at the rate they currently are as they will not be able to score so freely every game and it will end up costing them.
Southampton’s recent porous defensive has coincided with a recent tactical switch from Martin, with captain Jack Stephens being shoehorned into what was a settled defence whilst he spent the majority of the first half of the season injured.
Russell Martin must stop Jack Stephens experiment
The fact that Martin gave Stephens the captain’s armband at the start of the season puts the Southampton boss in a difficult position.
Stephens started the first four league games of the season before coming off injured against QPR; an injury that would keep him out until mid December. In his absence, Southampton eventually settled on the central defensive pairing of Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jan Bednarek, with the duo forming an impressive partnership that saw Southampton go 25 games unbeaten in all competitions and concede just 16 league goals in that time.
Since Stephens has returned, though, Martin has been keen to find a way to get him into the side. Stephens has played right-back and left-back in the past couple of months, but it appears that Martin has now settled on playing Stephens centrally and shifting Harwood-Bellis to right-back.
The absence of star man Kyle Walker-Peters through injury has been partly responsible for this recent set-up, but there is a growing feeling that Martin’s desperation to fit square pegs in round holes to accommodate his captain is coming at the detriment of the side.
Speaking ahead of the postponed game against Preston on Wednesday, Martin said: “I think we’re blessed with the centre-halves we have so it’s up to us to find the best solution to try and get them all on the pitch”.
Given Southampton’s success this season has been founded on playing with a conventional back four, with full-backs in Walker-Peters and Ryan Manning who like to get forward, it is difficult to argue against the fact that the recent change has been unsettling and the fact Southampton have conceded 18 goals in the last eight games is evidence of this.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis must play centrally over Stephens
Martin has hailed Stephens a ‘fantastic leader’, but that alone is not enough reason to shoehorn the 30-year-old into the side.
With Walker-Peters set to return for Southampton’s next game at home to Middlesborough, Martin must return to the back four that has impressed for the majority of the season.
This means Stephens dropping to the bench, with Harwood-Bellis and Jan Bednarek resuming their partnership and Walker-Peters and Manning on either side.
In the win over Sunderland, Stephens failed to impress in his favoured position and was eventually sacrificed after Sunderland’s equaliser. James Bree came on at right-back and Harwood-Bellis shifted back to the centre, with the Saints looking far more balanced as a result.
The fact that Martin saw fit to replace Stephens was perhaps evidence he understands the issue the tactical tweak caused and also suggests that Harwood-Bellis is still viewed as the better player in his manager’s eyes.
It is difficult to argue that Stephens did not deserve to come off, given that he only won a quarter of his duels, made two fouls, was dribbled past once and lost possession seven times in his 73 minutes.
Martin must now return to the back four that took his side to second a matter of weeks ago if Southampton are to sustain a push for the automatic promotion places.